Innovation Gallery at the Canadian Association of Law Libraries Conference

Last night, the Canadian Association of Law Libraries (CALL) organized an "Innovation Gallery" at the University of Windsor as part of its annual conference in Windsor, Ontario.

The Innovation Gallery was described as a "poster session on steroids": visitors could go from room to room to see digital presentations about new projects and initiatives undertaken by CALL members.

Here are a few I was able to catch:

1) Access CLE at the Great Library (Law Society of Upper Canada, Toronto)

Olcay Atacan presented Access CLE, the Law Society's e-commerce portal for ordering continuing legal education materials

2) Annotated Nova Scotia Civil Procedure Rules

Deborah Copeman and Susan Jones of the Nova Scotia Barristers' Society in Halifax demonstrated the Annotated Nova Scotia Civil Procedure Rules. It is fully indexed, links to forms, can output results in PDF or Word format, contains "educational notes" that explain the Rules, and has a table of concordance to the old rules. It uses technology supplied by LexUM, the legal informatics lab at the University of Montreal.

3) Training Librarian's Toolbox

This is an idea from Liana Giovando, training and reference librarian at Goodmans LLP in Toronto.

It is currently a prototype on Google Sites and the idea is to create an open source repository where CALL members could share their training materials. It is a work in progress with a lot of potential. During the 2009-2010 year, the Courthouse and Law Society Libraries Special Interest Group of CALL (of which I am co-chair) had asked members to contribute training materials so we could compile a list. That list of a static document. Liana's idea is a) more interactive, b) dynamic, and c) uses technology to its fullest potential.

4) Legal Research Literacy Using Blended Learning and Learning Community Strategies (University of Ottawa)

Julie Lavigne, coordinator of the legal research program at the Brian Dickson Law Library, explained this project.

The blended learning part involved developing a number of web-based self-instruction modules embedded in courseware used by students. The modules deal with search strategies (Boolean, keywords), using secondary legal sources, the rules of legal citation, and finding Ontario laws and regulations.

The learning communities part involved the creation of a course in legal writing and research for upper year students who would also act as teaching assistants and mentors to first-year students.